Throughout various industrial applications, apparatus components are subjected to numerous extreme conditions (e.g., high temperatures, high pressures, large stress loads, etc.). Over time, an apparatus's individual components may suffer creep and/or deformation that may reduce the component's usable life. Such concerns might apply, for instance, to some turbomachines.
Turbomachines are widely utilized in fields such as power generation and aircraft engines. For example, a conventional gas turbine system includes a compressor section, a combustor section, and at least one turbine section. The compressor section is configured to compress air as the air flows through the compressor section. The air is then flowed from the compressor section to the combustor section, where it is mixed with fuel and combusted, generating a hot gas flow. The hot gas flow is provided to the turbine section, which utilizes the hot gas flow by extracting energy from it to power the compressor, an electrical generator, and other various loads.
During operation of a turbomachine, various components (collectively known as turbine components) within the turbomachine and particularly within the turbine section of the turbomachine, such as turbine blades, may be subject to creep due to high temperatures and stresses. For turbine blades, creep may cause portions of or the entire blade to elongate so that the blade tips contact a stationary structure, for example a turbine casing, and potentially cause unwanted vibrations and/or reduced performance during operation.
Accordingly, components may be monitored for creep. One approach to monitoring components for creep is to configure strain sensors on the components, and analyze the strain sensors at various intervals to monitor for deformations associated with creep strain.
One challenge in monitoring components and strain sensors thereon is obtaining images of the strain sensors that are of sufficient quality for subsequent deformation analyses to be accurate. Factors such as the illumination of the strain sensors, the surface properties of the component and the strain sensors, the viewing parameters for an image capture device being utilized to obtain the images (and potential misconfigurations thereof), and the relative positions of the image capture device and strain sensors can lead to images that are of insufficient quality. For example, the images can be blurred and/or out of focus. This can lead to inaccuracies in post-processing analyses of the images, such as for deformation analysis.
The need for improved imaging is not limited to stain sensor applications. Such need exists in other component applications. For example, improved imaging of cooling holes defined in the exterior surface of a component and/or other surface features configured on the exterior surface of a component is desired.
Accordingly, alternative systems and methods for monitoring components which facilitate improved imaging of surface features configured on the components are desired.